Originally written in Traditional Chinese: Minerva Immersion Week 第 6 天：一扇沒有標示的門
Minerva Immersion Week, Day 6 (Oct 23): the visit I cannot write about.
Context: Minerva's MDA is an online master's for working professionals. Immersion Weeks bring us to one city for a week. I have finished my MDA; Tokyo is my third and last.
In the afternoon we visited a place with no sign at the entrance. Without a guide, you would walk right past it. Inside was the most remarkable thing I have ever seen.
That is all I can say.
Our hosts told us at the start that the place is not open to the public and that photos could not go on social media. Halfway through, I asked: we will not share photos or video, but can we talk about the experience? The answer was no. Later, our faculty lead repeated it to the whole group: no posting, and no talking about what we saw.
What I can share is my own reaction. I told our hosts, "This is really the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life." Halfway through, I walked over to our faculty lead and said: this is Minerva, and no one else can match it. A classmate said that even if he had joined only this one day, the program would have been worth it.
Why would a door with no sign open for a group of students from around the world? Not money. Trust. On Day 4, a German entrepreneur in Tokyo told us, "Japan is super trust society. If you do one introduction wrong, you lose the trust of your partner." Today I understood it. Every group that walks in, keeps its promise, and walks out quietly keeps the door open for the next one. The price of entry is silence afterwards.
This connects to the question I carried all week: as AI gets better at doing things, what stays human? AI can read everything that is public. It will never read the rooms that open only to people who are trusted, or what happens between people inside them. You have to be there, and you have to be someone worth letting in.
To me, this is one of Minerva's strengths. Some of the best things happen in places you cannot even describe.
In the evening, our closing dinner. A classmate had the week's photos printed so everyone could take a few home.
Three questions for this week:
Which door opened for me because someone trusted me?
What have I kept confidential for someone?
Whom can I open a door for this year?
Over the coming weeks I will go back to each day, one post at a time. That is deliberate: spaced repetition. What you revisit after a gap is what you keep. Feel free to revisit with me.
MDA if you want a degree that changes how you think without leaving your job; World Wise if you lead a team.
Take a seat at this table
- 👉 Minerva MDA (Master of Science in Decision Analysis): apply
- 👉 Minerva World Wise executive leadership program: express your interest
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